Beijing Traffic Jam Stymies K-Pop Star

A Kia booth shows a cardboard cutout of K-pop star Lee Min-hoo, which appeared in lieu of the real Mr. Lee.

Lilian Lin for The Wall Street Journal

China has a passion for Korean pop culture and for cars. On Sunday, as the Beijing auto show opened to the media, the combination proved to be less than harmonious.

Hyundai Motor Corp.'s China joint venture canceled its briefing at the Beijing International Auto Show on Sunday just minutes after it was due to take place at noon. That meant no appearance from Kim Soo-hyun, a fresh-faced Korean heartthrob best known for playing an ageless alien on Korean TV’s “My Love From the Star.” The show has been watched more than 14.5 billion times since its debut last December on iQiyi, one of the domestic online video platforms in China.

The reason? A Hyundai spokesman told a milling crowd in front of the Hyundai booth Sunday morning that it was due to a traffic jam. The excuse holds water: the streets around the China International Exhibition Center were packed Sunday morning, prompting many show-goers to abandon their taxis and buses and hoof it for the last mile.

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Hyundai had announced Mr. Kim’s plans to attend on its official Weibo account, drawing crowds who somehow squeezed into the show even though it was limited to media and industry officials on Sunday. “I really want to see him,” said one, who gave her surname as Li. She said she and her friends got their passes from a scalper.

The crowds proved to be a problem. Police and staffers blocked the entrance to the Hyundai booth about half an hour before the show was to begin, citing too many visitors.

And when the news came that Mr. Kim wouldn’t show, the audience began to boo. A Hyundai official told the crowd that they would get an autographed photo of Mr. Kim if they visited the Beijing Hyundai Weibo account. Many of the fans weren’t impressed. “So meaningless,” sighed Ms. Li.

Or maybe not. Mr. Kim appeared about two hours later at the Hyundai booth for just a few minutes, according to the auto maker’s Weibo, which said his appearance had been rescheduled for security reasons. It wasn’t clear whether Ms. Li and her friends were still there waiting.

Mr. Kim wasn’t the only K-Popper who left audiences hanging. Hyundai’s sister company, Kia Motors, said on its Weibo account that another Korean A-lister, actor Lee Minhoo, wouldn’t attend its event. It cited a scheduling conflict.

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